Hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions and geographical positioning methods thereof

• US 8,294,788 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2010
• Issued: 10/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accton Technology Corporation
• Original Assignee: Accton Wireless Broadband Corp. (Accton Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Liu, I-Ru, Liu, Te-Yao, Tsai, Ting-I
• Primary Examiner(s): Jerabek, Kelly L
• Application Number:
  US12/651,835
• Publication Number:
  US 20100289905A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,023 Days
• Field of Search: 348/208.2, 348/211.2, 348/231.99, 3482313-2316
• US Class Current: 348/231.3
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00127 Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00323 with a measuring, monitoring or signaling apparatus, e.g. for transmitting measured information to a central location
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32133 on the same paper sheet, e.g. a facsimile page header
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3273 Display

Abstract

A hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions and geographical positioning methods thereof is provided. The hand-held device includes a photographing module, a positioning module, a database and a processor. The photographing module photographs environment of a shooting place to form a digital picture. The positioning module accesses a positioning data of the shooting place. The processor matches the positioning data of the shooting place with a geographical positioning condition when the digital picture is obtained, so as to get a target geographical area data corresponding to the shooting place, from all geographical area data. The target geographical area data is displayed on the digital picture corresponding to the shooting place and the geographical positioning condition is an area center data of every geographical area data or plural boundary pointers which include boundary coordinates of every geographical area data.

Claims

1. A hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions, the hand-held device comprising:

a photographing module which is used to photograph an environment of a shooting place to form a digital picture;

a positioning module which is used to access positioning data of the shooting place;

a database which stores plural geographical area data; and

a processor which couples the photographing module, the positioning module and the database;

wherein while obtaining the digital picture, the processor compares the positioning data with area center data of every first geographical area data in the plural geographical area data to obtain target geographical area data based on a comparison result, and an Euclidean distance between the area center data of the target geographical area data and the positioning data is the smallest, the processor determines whether the target geographical area data includes plural second geographical area data, when the target geographical area data includes plural second geographical area data, the processor takes the second geographical area data as the first geographical area data and compares the positioning data with area center data of every first geographical area data in the plural geographical area data to obtain target geographical area data based on a comparison result again, and when the target geographical area data does not include plural second geographical area data, the processor displays the target geographical area data on the digital picture corresponding to the shooting place.

2. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 1, further including a storage medium which couples with the processor;

after marking the target geographical area data on the digital picture, the processor compressing the digital picture as an image file and storing the image file in the storage medium.

3. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 1, wherein the target geographical area data is an address, and the address is selected from a group consisting of a country, a state, a province, a metropolitan, a territory, a shire, a county, a city, a township, a village, a road, a street, a section, a lane, an alley and a number.

4. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 1, wherein the target geographical area data is a geographical name.

5. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 1, wherein the database includes plural country codes corresponding to the geographical area data, and the target geographical area data includes one target country code of the shooting place.

6. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 1, wherein the database includes plural international phone numbers corresponding to the geographical area data, and the target geographical area data includes one international phone number of the shooting place.

7. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 1, wherein the processor displays time on the digital picture time when the digital picture is captured.

8. A hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions, the hand-held device comprising:

a photographing module which is used to photograph an environment of a shooting place to form a digital picture;

a positioning module which is used to access positioning data of the shooting place;

a database which stores plural geographical area data and plural boundary pointers of the plural geographical area data; and

a processor which couples the photographing module, the positioning module and the database;

wherein while obtaining the digital picture, the processor obtains plural boundary pointers of plural first geographical area data and searches along plural different directions by taking the positioning data as a start point to find out target boundary pointers that are closest to the positioning data on each different direction, the processor compares the target boundary pointers with the boundary pointers to access target geographical area data from the first geographical area data, and determines whether the target geographical area data includes plural second geographical area data, when the target geographical area data includes plural second geographical area data, the processor takes the second geographical area data as the first geographical area data, and obtains plural boundary pointers of plural first geographical area data again, and when the target geographical area data does not include plural second geographical area data, the processor displays the target geographical area data on the digital picture corresponding to the shooting place.

9. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 8, further including a storage medium which couples with the processor;

after marking the target geographical area data on the digital picture, the processor compressing the digital picture as an image file and storing the image file in the storage medium.

10. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 8, wherein the target geographical area data is an address, and the address is selected from a group consisting of a country, a state, a province, a metropolitan, a territory, a shire, a county, a city, a township, a village, a road, a street, a section, a lane, an alley and a number.

11. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 8, wherein the target geographical area data is a geographical name.

12. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 8, wherein the database includes plural country codes corresponding to the geographical area data, and the target geographical area data includes one target country code of the shooting place.

13. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 8, wherein the database includes plural international phone numbers corresponding to the geographical area data, and the target geographical area data includes one international phone number of the shooting place.

14. The hand-held device having positioning and photographing functions according to claim 8, wherein the processor displays time on the digital picture time when the digital picture is captured.